Capcom may be reluctant to release an entirely new Mega Man game these days but it has no issues with mining its past and recycling existing titles from the series, and recently announced that it would be releasing all six of the classic NES entries on iOS and Android. Those games launched this week at $1.99 / £1.79 (on iOS, at least) a pop, and they're utterly terrible - but not for the reasons you might expect.
Famed for their intense challenge and demand for quick reactions, it goes without saying that the Mega Man series is completely unsuited to touchscreen control, but a more pressing problem is the fact that the emulation across both iOS and Android is godawful. The frame rate is up and down like a bride's nightie which makes it hard to time your attacks and nail those pixel-perfect jumps, and on iOS the music is ruined by poor emulation.
The issue is so bad that Capcom wasn't even able to hide performance issues from the promo trailers - they feature obvious stutter - but this fan-made compilation video really hammers the point home:
What makes this problem all the more confusing is that we all know that modern smartphones are capable of emulating the NES perfectly. In fact, phones from over five years ago were more than up to this task, and Android devices are emulating MAME, PlayStation and N64 at acceptable levels nowadays. Capcom hasn't yet responded to the groundswell of negativity surrounding these mobile ports, but things are clearly serious - Kotaku, US Gamer, Android Police, Ars Technica and Phone Arena all felt compelled to post utterly scathing editorials on the matter.
Given the amazing job that Nintendo did with Super Mario Run on iOS, it's a real shame that a company with Capcom's experience can't port a series of retro titles - some of which are pushing 30 now - without dropping the ball.
Needless to say, don't waste your money and invest in the superior Virtual Console editions or the excellent Mega Man Legacy Collection instead.
Comments 66
I have the Legacy Collection on 3DS, so I'm good.
If you are a Mega Man newbie like me, I recommend picking that up. An excellent little compilation.
Quick and dirty? Who'd a thunk it.
Just pure money grabbing with inferior programming
Look up "Megaman X Over".
Unless you're a Megaman fan, in which case, don't. Or, if you know what I'm talking about, please forgive me for triggering you.
I don't understand why mobile games are usually cheaper than it's consoles counterparts. The Sonic mobile remake, probably the best versión, is cheaper then both the 3DS M2 versión and especially the Wii VC versión.
This is exactly why I don't trust Capcom to "reboot" or bring Mega Man back. They view it strictly as a product and nothing more. As a result, they will approach it as something to exploit based on its legacy with fans. Most of the creative people who had passion for the series have long since moved on from Capcom so their only real option is to farm the series to other developers. If they were smart and handed it over to a company like Wayforward, Mega Man would have a shot of coming back but I'm willing to bet Capcom doesn't want to spend the money to get a talented team to do things the right way. They want cheap, quick games that require little effort so they can cash in on the Mega Man nostalgia that fans have for the series. This is why I made my peace with the series long ago. Personally, my wish is that Capcom would sell the Mega Man IP to Nintendo so they could bring it back properly. Maybe it's just me but Mega Man just doesn't "feel" right on other systems, he's always felt at home in Nintendo's universe and his inclusion in Smash Bros felt way more natural than characters like Ryu, Solid Snake or Cloud.
You don't need to tell me to stay away from phone games. I'll stick to consoles that have BUTTONS.
I don't understand the bit about the brides nightie. Can someone please explain to me in detail? 🤔
@Oscarzxn That's easy, in the glut of freemium and €2 games, hardly anybody will spend €10 or more on a game (But they'll spend a fortune on in-app purchases, strange how that works...), no matter how good it is...
Mega Man with a poor frame rate and no physical controls must literally be impossible to finish.
Mega-Poos. To heck with touchscreen platforming. Its an oxymoron.
Just let it die, Capcom! You're doing to Mega Man what Brian May has done to Queen.
Wow, and I thought the 3DS Legacy Collection ran MM5 poorly, but at least with that one, you could play the Famicom version and it would work fine.
Yeah, these horrendous mobile ports are a huge disservice to all Mega Man fans. There are no excuses for this kind of thing in this day and age. Capcom should issue an apology at the very least.
@Oscarzxn Because more people have access to smartphones these days, and most mobile games are cheap, so you have to price your game accordingly, something Nintendo wasn't aware of when releasing Super Mario Run. That's just my guess, anyways.
@GeminiSaint Crapcom couldn't care less, I'm sure. When it comes to ports, they'll focus on quantity over quality. The more systems they can port one game to, the more money they'll make.
@TreonsRealm I think a better fit would be Yacht Club or Wayforward. Ducktales, Mighty Switch Force, Shovel Knight... they are really the undeniable champions of the design style Capcom USED to do.
@Oscarzxn I haven't played the mobile version of Sonic, but the M2 version is the best portable sonic 1 & 2 there are to me because I prefer buttons and they are not simple ports while very true to the original games they have a lot of options and the 3D effect is outstanding. If you have read the M2 intervies on the SEGA blog you would've known all the hard work that has gotten into these games, specially the Arcade versions are turned up to 11 and a testament on how old games should be preserved.
With the 3D in place the give that sense of wonder that the games had to me when I played/saw them as a child.
This is why real gamers (forgive the expression) cannot take phone games serious, while there are more and more fully fledged games out there, Crystal Dynamix did a good job with Hitman and Tombraider go!, they all seem to be drowned in crappy ports that feel cheap, unfinished with clunky or impossible controls.
You see, @Fandabidozi, when a boy and girl like each other very much...
I bought Mega Man Legacy Collection on PS4 last week for 4:99euro. It's on sale until 20 January.
I never played a Mega Man game and thought it'd be a perfect introduction. I like it.
@GeminiSaint
Sorry dude but "Capcom should issue an apology at the very least."
What are you smoking?
How hard can it be for a huge developer like Capcom to create some faithful Mobile Versions of Mega Man 1-6?!
Oh well, guess the only Mobile Phone Game i'm playing for a while are the Sonic the Hedgehog Remakes. Those turned out really well, so there is no excuse for Capcom.
Can't say anything about how Super Mario Run turned out, since i couldn't play it yet.
This baffles me, I bought an iOS version of Mega Man II years and years ago and it was nearly flawless in terms of performance.
The last time Capcom screw Mega Man was with that atrocious Mega Man X iOS port which was equally bad as well.
@Dr_Corndog @3MonthBeef
Awesome! I'll google that and see what comes up. 😃👍
@Oscarzxn NFirst, the glut of "free" games on mobile typically forces devs to lower prices to compete. The main exceptions are Square Enid games, because certain people will spend $15 or so on them in particular. Also, when porting a game to a platform, a chunk of time and money has to go into adjusting to the new platform. Since there are so many mobile devices, that cost can be outsourced to many more customers. It's not like the 3D effect can be ported to most platforms. Third, people who own handhelds tend to be more willing to spend money on games anyway, meaning the price can be a bit higher artificially. Fourth, Sega has other games on the Nintendo eShop. By introducing Sonic for only $2, they would be expected to have lower prices on their other 3D classic titles. This would be self defeating. This wouldn't matter as much on mobile because Sega is proportional bigger on the 3DS eShop than mobile.
@Mart1ndo
Hence "should".
I'm very much aware chances of that actually happening are pretty slim.
Well there's an oxymoron for you. Smartphone ports should be avoided at any and all times.
Abysmal. I feel like Capcom is flogging the Mega Man IP like a dead horse, then kicking it for good measure. They need to stop focusing on ports of what they already have and start creating new content to keep the IP from feeling stale.
@DarthNocturnal 1GB of RAM is pretty standard nowadays for phones. But emulating NES with decent framerates should be trivial on any smartphone.
You know better than that, Capcom.
@DarthNocturnal it's my understanding that they didn't add any controller support. Shocking.
Yet another example of officially released emulation that is done so poorly. It's a shame it's such a common occurrence.
Crapcom at it again.
A PRIME example of how Nintendo made the right decision with SMR. You pay for quality. Fair enough it could be at £5 or $5 but it's worth more than that. The fact that Mega Man here is $12 for 6 shabby games that are actually all brilliant originally just highlights that this is a huge Nibelsnarf up. Basically, nintendo would NEVER release a pile of poo like this that does nothing but damage Capcom's brand.
The fact that a fan made port of MM2 in Petit Computer runs better than these just makes this all the more ridiculous.
@AlexOlney
I thought I remember seeing that on the App Store years ago! How did the controls on that work? That truly is baffling... but it seems like everyone else has forgotten about it, including Capcom.
I assume the 28 yen coding for budget is the issue here
@Solid_Stannis Christian Whitehead's excellent Sonic the Hedgehog remasters would beg to differ. Granted, Sonic games have a very simple control scheme and don't require the precision of Mega Man.
I'd never play a twitchy game like this on a touch screen anyway.
Capcom needs a Mega Man intervention. Maybe recovering Sega can provide a cautionary message
Read a substory on this one from someone who worked on Mega Man 2 back in 09 for iOS(phone/pad) which I happen to have. If you can get used to it, that one plays and sounds right. He points out the issues doing it then on far lesser hardware and getting it that close. Then goes into now dead beeline games who did these abominations which are bloated and loaded with problems. If it were something other than Capcom, you'd hope they'd just refund the cash and pull the garbage but that won't happen, and fixes forget it.
Also kind of more embarrassing I believe, MM2 is one the new mini classic nes console, runs perfect. Hmm... get some non-morons working for you, and not a room full of monkeys with typewriters for the price of bananas?
There's actually a way to make the game stutter less. In the options menu, you can set the speed. Setting it to high will effectively double the frame-rate, and makes the game much more playable.
I've reached out to Capcom to see if they support bluetooth controllers, but so far no response. Either way, for TWO BUCKS it's not the worst. Do you guys even REMEMBER that auto-running Mega Man X garbage that came out on iPhones? I also do like that they have different difficulty levels here.
They aren't TOTAL garbage, but it's an odd choice for touch-screen for sure. That, and the framerate issue DOES stink, but it's still a good price.
@Samwise7 Watch the language.
Lol'd at "like a bride's nighty."
Didn't they release the legacy collection a year or two ago? Wouldn't it be smarter to release the rest of the X series as well the gameboy color mm games and the oddballs like rockman battle and chase ad mega man soccer on the eshop?
I certainly wouldn't buy a mm mobile game.
Had $15 just sitting on my PSN account with nothing really on my radar that I didn't already have on PC until Horizon Zero Dawn comes out, so I picked up the Legacy Collection for PS4. One of the best retro compilations I've ever played. Sooooo close to beating MM2, but that freaking boss in Wily's Fortress 2 deals a CRAPTON of damage and is going to require a lot of pattern memorization.
Stop wasting time on crap mobile ports and either work on a new game or a Legacy Collection 2 with 7-10 with extra spin offs or an X Legacy Collection....
are they serious? wow
Well, it's better than nothing
Or is it?...
Touchscreen controls usually stink for classic gaming. It feels uncomfortable and sometimes laggy.
I think I will just stick to the Mega Man Legacy Collection for my 3DS. I am going to assume that these versions are just straight ports and don't include any of the neat extras like the amiibo challenges and the art work like that one does. This once again goes to show that although there are a few exceptions, most games play best on dedicated gaming hardware.
Up and down like a Bride's nightie....LOL!!!! That was great.
@Oscarzxn
Because things in bulk are cheaper.
If you buy a larger amount of anything, it tends to be at a better value. Mobile games can be cheaper because the userbase is so much bigger. The expected sales are always a lot higher.
I mean, 90 mil downloaded super mario run. That's more than all number of current gen consoles combined I think.
@khululy
I totally agree with you on preferring buttons over touchscreen interfaces. But this is one of those cases where I must inform you that the Sonic 1 and 2 mobile ports are nothing short of extraordinary, and are created by the same Taxman and Stealth from the Sonic hacking and fangame community.
Sonic 1 includes a Sonic & Tails mode, along with Tails and Knuckles as playable characters, while Sonic 2 actually includes a fully completed version of Hidden Palace Zone(from the Sonic 2 BETA ROM). There's a whole lot more, too! On most devices, these games play just fine, but will always be better for you if you can use a controller. Do yourself a favor and check these out if you can!
At what point in the series did Mega Man ever yell out "Mr. X!! It's time to tell you the truth."?? Tell him the truth about what, exactly? Lol, they even butchered the beginning of Mega Man 6!
Yep! Kids, if you wondered why Mega Man was a big hit in the '80s and '90s with us adults, wonder no more! The games have been preserved and play just like we remember them playing, so you'll get the same experience that we did decades ago!...
...Said no one in their right mind.
im old school so i wonder if the games are compatible to my phone:
i keep it real
Wasn't Mega Man II already available on iOS officially? I bought thata really long time ago back when all i had was an iPod touch...
@ogo79 I wonder how it takes 1GB of RAM to call someone.
And I'd like to see someone play Mega Man with that phone.
@KingMike
you sayin i aint got the skills?
@Linker2A03 While extra playable characters are a nice touch and the cut lvl adds some extra length I still feel that the 3DS version are superior in terms of fatefull replication of the original. Not saying those mobile ports aren't good but I like the 3DS versions so much the work that has gone into them is more than just simple emulation rom hack kinda thing.
Mega man with touch control-- eww. That's about as bad as texting while driving.
@Joeynator3000 Excuse me? You aren't a moderator thanks.
@Samwise7 ...Yeah I am. o.o
Wow... to paraphrase Calculon from Futurama, that video was so terrible I think it gave me cancer. There are so many things wrong that I don't even know where to start. I hate Capcom so much right now.
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...